Hold Me Close
by Snow22
Summary: A one-shot fluffy fic of Sazh and Fang.


"Being with Vanille so long, I just started to regard her as my daughter." Fang explained to Sazh after a few minutes of alone time with him. The two stood on one of the old, broken bridges of Gran Pulse in the glow of crystals below. A Fal-cie was circling in patterns above them and all around was the sound of nature, life and death. Night had fallen upon them and neither could sleep. "So what's up with you?" She asked in her heavily accented but beautiful voice.

"You keep making fun of this place but I can see the look of fear in your eyes."

"Not fear." Sazh reassured. "Worry is a better term. I keep thinking about my little boy back home…and how they took him away. I'm going to kill those bastards for taking away my baby."

Fang rose an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were a father." She liked his tone, the protective tingle it had in it.

"Vanille didn't tell you?" He smirked, brushing his beard a bit "I thought it might be obvious."

"Not really. You did seem fatherly but I thought it was just your age."

"Hey, I'm just as old as you!"

"Yeah which is why both of us should be sleeping right now." She slammed her weapon on the ground annoyed.

"But you can't sleep either." Fang made the mistake of looking into his eyes, those warm and beautiful dark brown eyes that held a tinge of sadness and pride. "Can you Fang?"

"No…I keep worrying about Oerba. And how I've messed up this place so badly."

"You've not done such thing." He lifted her chin a bit, the heat from his hands circulating into her cold skin. "I surely refuse to believe it."  
The bleating of a sheep came to them, the small creature crossing their path to collect with a bunch of similar shaped breathing puffs in the grass beyond.

"Sazh…please stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Stop thinking that everyone you meet is going to be a great person. You know why? Cause I'm not. I'm a terrible, hell-ridden woman who's got nothing more than a string of pity to live by. I ruined everything, the only reason all of you are this way is because…" With that he silenced her, laying a finger on her lips.  
"Would you please shut it? Your worse than Vanille, aren't you?"

Her eyes watered and she lifted her hand to smack his cheek. But he only smiled and fought back playfully. She cried out as she tried to hit and kick, bite and punch but for some odd reason she couldn't summon her strength against this man. This wonderfully tall, dark-skinned and masculine man that had protected her and her daughter-figure despite the situation at hand, despite his previous hatred for Pulse…despite all that happened to him. He still cared. And thinking of this made her buck down to her knees and cry hard into her hands.

"Sazh…why…why…"

He let Fang hang there at his feet for a while, watching her purple highlights bob in her beautifully strange mixture of curls and spikes. He felt the urge to hold something from her close and so worked his way down to meet their fingers, lifting her up with a single hand. He let her body rest against his, feeling  
her muscles shiver when the wind picked up. Across the plains the howl of a canine could be heard reaching their ears. He concentrated on the sound of her necklaces, all bouncing against one another along the curve of her breast. He focused on her eyes, those beastly and hypnotizing orbs that screamed of passion and anger all in one throw.

He continued to hold their hands together, fingers laced and intertwined in a delicate dance. Fang chuckled a bit, "This is a school girl habit, my mother never did like me doing this with other kids."

"Well we're not kids are we?"

"No which is why we should stop playing games." She cocked an eyebrow as his  
free hand felt along the curve of her waist. Granted it did send an anxious shiver through her body, but they were on a mission. Breaking reality would be just so kind right now and in the back of her mind, she begged him not to stop.  
He didn't continuing to smother her with his gaze and press his gentle lips to her forehead. "Seeing it with you, I don't think of this world as a hell anymore. In fact, it must be heaven, seeing how an angel like you came from here."

Fang gave a tiny, snorty chuckle at this. She blushed with the flattery of it all, her eyes marked on his chest, his lips his smiling face…it had been so long since she received such compliments even if they were a bit cheesy. "That was a horrible comparison!"

"I've not really been much of a romantic, but I try my best." At the word romance she shut down completely, letting her mind roam to other things than fal'cie and ill-fated ways. He set a hand upon her cheek, rubbing his thumb to play with a single curl that had dropped down as the breeze fondled their beings. She just watched him observe it with such caution and a tinge of fear. She appreciated his distance but at this moment it felt like she wanted something more.

Nothing was forced however. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the two fully embraced. She shifted so that her ear met his chest, feeling and listening to his heart beat at first very fast but then it began to slow as he became accustomed to her weight and scent. She started to play a bit, first tangling her fingers in his hair, his heart started to beat faster as she trailed a nail down through his arm and then to the tattoo on his chest. With wobbling legs, the two sat against a jutted stone wall, propped up and holding each other. She lay atop his chest, listening and feeling his skin. Neither said a word, what was needed?

That is until she lifted herself up, once again watching his face. He looked so intoxicated, as she must have. The look was familiar, one of love. And not family love, not friendship love…just love.

Slowly he shut his eyes. In turn she did the same. Feeling his breath begin to center at her lips nearly made her cringe and pull back. But she drew all her strength into leaning forward and matching up to him, tilting her head a bit to fully take on his kiss.

She could have sworn there were explosions in her mind, the sweet taste of his lips brought her to give a tiny groan and hold his head closer. She felt his eyelashes tingling with hers, their mouths playing some sort of odd game. The prickling of his beard was sensual and it made her smile, feeling it with her fingers and drawing in and out of the multiple passionate kisses that came again and again. After trailing her lips across his face she finally ended it with one final smooch and they both opened their eyes. She was straddling his torso, both of them panting heavily and caressed in a sheen of sweat. She gave him a tiny smile, "It's been a very, very long time since I've felt so deeply…for someone besides myself."

He gave a chuckle at this, holding the small of her back. "Same here, babe." He liked watching her polite blushing at being called something so loving.

She lowered down to fully hold him and began to shut her eyes. "We can sleep together tonight, right?"

"Yeah…but what will everyone else think?"

"Let them think what they want." She spat and felt her tears welling. "I don't want to loose anything else anymore. I won't. I promise."

"I believe you." With that he kissed her forehead and started to pet along her back. "Get some rest, you need it."

"Alright." She reluctantly told, her eyes shutting once more as a single tear fell. The slow, steady beat of his heart was a lullaby that sent her into a dreamless, wonderfully deep sleep.


End file.
